Current home or industrial networking technologies have two separate networks. One network connects the PCs to the Internet via a dial-up phone, cable, xDSL, or Ethernet connection, and another network such as CEBus™, LonWorks™, or X-10™ controls appliances or equipment. CEBus™ was developed by the Electronics Industries Association, LonWorks™ was developed by Echelon Corp. of California, and X-10™ components are manufactured by X-10 Limited of Hong Kong. When one wants to remotely control the appliance via the Internet, one needs a converter, a specialized gateway, or software in a computer to interface between the Internet and the other networks.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,862 shows one popular protocol called X-10™ used in homes to control lights and appliances. It uses dedicated transmitters at various locations in the home to control slave receivers that are designed to plug into the electrical outlets or designed to replace existing switches or outlets. The protocol is very restrictive and cannot handle very much data since it transmits 120 data bits/s over the existing power lines. To communicate on the Internet, a PC or similar device with proprietary software is needed to convert information and control data from the X-10™ system to the Internet. Similarly, LonWorks™ and CEBus™ are two other networks that are being used in the home to control lights and appliances.
U.S. Patent Application 2001/0034754 A1 defines a specialized gateway between CEBus™, LonWorks™, or X-10™ and the Internet as an attempt to solve the issue of remotely controlling the lights and appliances.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,779 discusses remotely controlling home electrical outlets and appliances by the CEBus™ protocol and proprietary BAN, Broadcast Access Network. A converter is needed to link the two systems. U.S. Patent Application No. 2002/0002627 A1 describes a scheme to control devices remotely, but uses a home protocol as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,795, and a specialize gateway called emGateway™. U.S. Patent Application No. 2002/0027504 A1 describes an embodiment that allows devices attached to the Internet to communicate to dedicated sensors via a site controller that translates the wireless sensors information to the Internet. This also is a dedicated proprietary device that requires specialized software.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,448 B1 describes a process device, which is attached to a process communication network and then to the Internet via a process communicator. The process communication network is one of the following types: low-speed Fieldbus protocol H1), high-speed Fieldbus protocol (H2), or similar types. The process communicator converts the process communication protocol from each node link, which contains Internet address information to Ethernet data network, which connects to the Internet. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,057 B1 describes an electronics meter, which incorporates a TCP/IP protocol suite and an HTTP server to provide direct access to the meter data via the Internet. However, it too relies on a specialized gateway to a non-TCP/IP network such as CEBus™.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,487 talks about incorporating a web access in a wide variety of devices including office equipment, home-based equipment, and lab equipment, as well as a variety of other types of devices commonly that provide device specific user interface functions. Office equipment devices typically include printers and copiers. Home-based devices include home entertainment equipment such as televisions, video recorders, and audio players as well as security systems, and appliances. Lab equipment includes measurement devices such as oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers. Web server functionality embedded in the device allows a web browser to access user interface functions for the device through a web page. These types of devices have the computing power, or can be easily added to the device, to provide web server functionality. U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,487 further describes devices that control the user interface to the device but does not describe control of house lighting and electrical outlets or control of power to the device. In fact, every home appliance or home entertainment equipment must have this web server functionality to control its operation via the Internet. This would limit such control to devices with this web server functionality and would not allow control of existing home appliances or home entertainment equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,479 B1 describes a home network with browser-based command and control for TV or audio equipment that uses a software agent. A software agent is executed on the client device to cause a user interface to be displayed on the client device. The devices described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,479 B1 are entertainment equipment, and the home network is the Internet within the home which connects PCs. The control of home entertainment equipment would be limited to devices with this specialized software agent and would not allow control of existing home appliances or home entertainment equipment.
All previous art describes systems that require a specialized converter or gateway to translate the home control network such as CEBus™, X-10™, and LonWorks™ to the TCP/IP protocol of the home Intranet network or requires that the TCP/IP protocol be incorporated in the appliance or home device. The major disadvantage of the current approaches is that there are too many different types of home networks. Each type of network has specialized controllers to control the electrical load. The proprietary converters or gateways require specialized software for the different networks, and this specialized software needs to be updated with new software when new devices are added to these home control networks. The consumer may be overwhelmed with what equipment to purchase, and in many cases a specialist would be required to install and verify the proper operation. Also, with TCP/IP embedded in the home appliance or equipment, the existing home appliances and equipment could not be controlled over the home Intranet. Therefore, there exists a need for an apparatus that incorporates the TCP/IP protocol into the home electrical boxes so as to have the same home Intranet that connects PCs, printers, and other web appliances to be used for control over existing home appliances, entertainment equipment, and electrical loads. Using a standardized TCP/IP protocol for the home control network would allow the use of standardized web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator to view the electrical load status or to control the AC electrical load without using a dedicated controller or a web-based home appliance or equipment.